I don't own Trigun or any of the characters or locations, I do however own Raymond the Mankiller and all his evil goodness.
Roundhouse
Wearing a black trench coat the young man with short, black hair entered the sheriff's office in the town of Roundhouse. The sheriff was at his desk, leaning back in his chair, half asleep. The man stood there, silent, waiting. He cleared his throat but still no answer. After a few minutes he slammed a piece of paper onto the desk waking the man up as he fell backwards. He quickly stood up, picked up his chair and sat down.
"Sorry about that, it has been a slow day", said the sheriff with a yawn, "Anyways what can I do for you?"
"I want to place a bounty", said the man with a deep, cool voice.
"Yes? And who would that be for?"
"A man named Raymond. His nickname is Raymond the Mankiller. And the bounty I want on his head is.." The sheriff fell backwards in pure shock.
"Are you sure that man is worth that much?" The man nodded, turned and left. Before he got the door the sheriff asked,
"Hey, what is it that makes this man so deadly?"
"He his known to randomly start killing anyone who is around him and he will not stop until he runs out of bullets. Aside from that he is an Ace Gunman." With that, he left.
January
Vash sat on a park bench looking at the gray sky. Nearby stood his two friends, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson looking at a bulletin board.
"Why look at this Milly", said Meryl "Derringer" Stryfe.
"Oh, it looks like our friend Vash is not the highest cash in", replied "Stungun" Milly. Vash fell over and ran over to them.
"What? What are you two talking about?" asked Vash the Stampede.
"Here", said Meryl as she held up a wanted poster. "
Raymond the Mankiller", read Vash out loud, "A insane killer, Raymond is known for entering a city and wiping out entire populations in a matter of moments. The bounty on the head on this killer is….". He dropped the poster, "150 billion double dollars".
"He must be a real weirdo to have that big of a bounty on his head. I wonder if the Bernardelli Insurance Agency will have us reassigned?", said Milly out loud.
"I wonder if Knives if behind this", thought Vash, "I need to calm my nerves". With that he slinked off to find a bar.
"Meryl?"
"Yes Milly?"
"Vash left again"
"Do not worry about that knuckle-head, he wont find his way out of this town. A maze surrounds it so that intruders cannot get in".
"If you say so"
Vash slugged down another glass of cold beer, then fell backwards onto the dirt floor. He closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them he saw a young man in a black trench coat; the stranger sat down at a table and ran his fingers through his short, pitch black, spiky hair. He ordered a drink. The waitress walked over scared and set the glass down. The man simply looked up at her with his deep black eyes and smiled. She quickly ran away. Vash walked over to him.
"Is this seat taken my friend?", asked Vash.
"No, it is not. Go ahead Mr. Stampede", said the man in a calm, cool voice. Vash quickly sat down and asked in a quiet voice,
"How did you know my name?"
"A young man with short, blond hair, wearing a red trench coat. It would be hard not to know who you are", replied the man taking a sip of his drink.
"Well", said Vash, "Did you know that 210 billion double dollars is sitting at this table right now, Mr. Mankiller?"
"So you know who I am?" "Yes Raymond. I have a knack for knowing people". Vash then ordered a drink.
"Did not expect to see you in this town", said Raymond.
"Why is that?"
"Well let us see, you have a history of destroying towns named after months and this town is called January. There is a high possibility that these people will not be here tomorrow", said Raymond as he took another sip of the drink. Vash jumped up and yanked Raymond out of his chair, holding him by his collar and looking into his eyes.
"Is that a threat or merely a warning?" shouted Vash angrily. Raymond looked into his eyes and smiled.
"Vash, you are making a scene", he said coolly. Vash threw him back, ran his fingers through his hair and slinked back into his chair nervously.
"I.. I am sorry about that", said Vash apologizing.
"No problem", said Raymond smiling, "What I meant is that I cannot control myself".
"What? Wait, you mean how you got your nickname, Mankiller?" asked Vash.
"Yes", said Raymond with pain in his eyes.
Why is he telling me all this? It is almost like he trusts me with his life and we just met, thought Vash as Raymond continued.
"Ever since I was little I have had this thing wrong with me. There is this one thing that I have yet to pin point that causes me to lose all sanity and kill everyone around until I am taken down or run out of bullets, and no one has taken me down yet".
"Then why carry bullets at all, or at least not as many", suggested Vash.
"They just appear", replied Raymond sadly.
"What?"
It was silent, there was no noise at all except for a little girl laughing outside. Suddenly Raymond's arm shot out and the glass fell slowly to the floor. It shattered and the sound of breaking glass seemed to echo into eternity. Then Vash heard a cry in his head.
/Please, run now. I do not want you to get hurt/, cried out the voice.
Vash caught the glow in Raymond's eyes. It was almost as if the man that he was sharing a drink with was now gone and in his place was a demon. His eyes went from deep, cool black to fierce, violent red. Raymond rose slowly and pulled out two handguns. He turned them sideways and started firing.
Vash crashed through a window and slammed into the ground. He was about to get up when Kuroneko fell down on top of him. Vash moaned and started crying.
"Why does everything bad always happen around me?" he asked out loud as the wall near him blew outwards. There stood Raymond the Mankiller. People that had been wandering around the town square stopped and looked at him. "No please, everyone run away!" screamed Vash as empty shells fell out of Raymond's handguns as he quickly reloaded. The people did not even have a chance as Raymond held up his handguns and started firing. Meryl and Milly were at a shop buying some dinner when they heard the gunfire.
"Meryl, what is that?" asked Milly, who ducked down behind Meryl.
"Do not worry Milly, it is probably just Vash showing off to another girl", said Meryl calmly. Suddenly Vash ran pass the store and another man ducked inside.
"Excuse me, but what is going on out there? Is that Vash the Stampede causing all the noise?" asked Meryl.
"I wish it was Vash the Stampede, rumor is that he has never killed anyone before", said the man, shaken, "No this man is different. He wears a black trench coat and has pitch black hair. His eyes were as red as the fires of hell and he is using a pair of silver handguns, he is killing everyone in the town! If we do not get out of here quick, we are all dead!" The shop keeper nodded.
"This way, youngins", said the old lady as she opened up a secret door in the ground behind the counter.
"This is a way out, we should be ok if we leave now", she said quickly as she ushered Milly, Meryl and the man out. Vash walked slowly into the center of town. There were bodies everywhere and standing on top of the statue in the middle of town was Raymond, his arms crossed and the handguns pointed in the air. Smoke slowly rose out of the barrels as his head was down. Vash walked to the base of it and looked up.
"What the fuck was that?" he asked angrily, "They are all dead! Who gave you the right to decide who lives and dies?"
"I was born with that right", said Raymond quietly.
"No, no one was born with the right to murder innocent people", shouted Vash as he fired a shot up at Raymond. It hit part of the statue causing Raymond to jump down, spin around and place the barrel of one of his handguns against Vash's head. Vash gasped as he saw that Raymond's eyes were still red.
"Who are you?" asked Vash.
"I am the Mankiller, Vash the Stampede. I was born with divine rights to kill", replied Raymond whose finger slowly pulled the trigger….
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"It is quite sad when someone is killed but when Raymond went as far as to lay waste to an entire city just because something triggered a bad memory he drove me to cry tears of anger. Life is not something you can just throw away. Life is a gift, a gift I choose to protect, protect with my life" Episode 2: Fallen Angel